Myth vs. Reality: Marketing Insights for Health Practices

FIONA:

Hello everyone, welcome to our webinar: Myth vs. Reality, Marketing Insights for Health Practices. Hi everyone, I'm Fiona. I head up Zanda's Marketing and Communications team, so we thought it'd be good for me to join on this one. I've previously worked as a business consultant and have founded and been involved in quite a lot of different technology businesses, mostly helping small and medium businesses become more efficient and operate more smoothly. Most of my career has been in marketing, so this is definitely a passion topic for me.

DAMIEN:

And I'm Damien, one of the co-founders of Zanda and head of customer success. I'm also a registered psychologist. My wife and I co-founded a psychology group practice that grew to be quite large, and identifying the needs and pain points of running practices led to the creation of Zanda, and also, more recently, a best-selling book on practice management, which is a new and exciting thing we released. So today's webinar is going to cover some common marketing myths. We've got four myths we're going to work through, along with the corresponding realities. And towards the end we'll get into some practical tips for levelling up your marketing, things you can actually take away and start implementing in your practice. That's just a bit of an overview of where we're going.

FIONA:

So let's dive straight in. The first myth is that referral sources already have established relationships with other practitioners. If your practice relies on referrals, this is a really important one. It's easy to think that GPs or other referral sources in your area already have their preferred places to send referrals, and it's very easy to feel a bit of imposter syndrome, especially if you're new to private practice or new to the area. So Damien, how did you and Bec approach developing relationships with referral sources when you had your practice?

DAMIEN:

I can certainly relate to all the things you just mentioned. You do feel like a bit of an outsider, that imposter syndrome, feeling like everyone else knows what they're doing and you're new. But the reality is that there are always opportunities to enter a market. There are always gaps, and patients have preferences about who they'd like to see, and so do referral sources, in terms of who they like to send people to.

We often make the mistake of assuming that everyone already has these tight relationships. When we started, we got clear on what we were about and what we were offering, and we tried a bunch of different things. Reaching out directly to GP practices and other health practitioners, saying, hey, this is what we're all about, got a far better response than we anticipated. Even people who warned us the market was saturated turned out to be wrong. GPs, and I say GPs because they're often the core referral source, though it can be others, are often looking for the right fit, matching patients with the right practitioners. That means they're always on the lookout and happy to add new people to their list. It opens up what they're able to offer.

The other thing is to focus on what makes you different. Don't get too caught up in pricing or competition. Focus on what you can offer patients and referral sources, how you can solve a problem for them. And keep in mind that the referral source population isn't static. New graduates are entering private practice all the time, GPs and allied health professionals are moving in and out of your area. There are always new people to talk to about what you can offer. And referrers may have patients who come back and say the last referral wasn't a great match, so having alternatives matters. I've had doctors tell me directly that they like supporting new practices for exactly that reason. They'll send a few patients, see what the feedback is like, and away you go.

FIONA:

So that was myth number one. Myth number two is that it's all about social media, that social media is the only way to really promote a practice. Our view is that social media is definitely one way of marketing a health practice and it can be very effective. Research shows that building a social media community can really improve brand awareness, trust, and loyalty. One thing to keep in mind, though, is that social media is very visible to people in the industry. If you're in a certain type of health profession, your algorithm is probably tuned so that you're seeing all the local practices that are quite similar to yours. That can skew your perception of how important it is. There are also a couple of things to be aware of: organic reach on social media has become very difficult across most platforms. Even if you had an audience of a thousand people, anything you post is likely to be shown to only a tiny proportion of them. Paid social media is another story, of course. But the effort that social media requires is significant. Getting the messaging right for your business, in a way that's nuanced and won't be taken the wrong way, can be quite difficult. Some people are very natural at it and that's great, but it's definitely not the only way to promote a health practice. Damien, what are your thoughts? Did you need a huge social media following?

DAMIEN:

No, not at all. Social media can work amazingly well if you're good at it and you enjoy it, if it resonates with how you are. But if you're just doing it because someone said it's the only way to be successful, it's unlikely you'll maintain it, and unlikely it'll work for you. The double-edged sword is that it can work extremely well if it aligns with your natural energy and interests, but you definitely don't need it. Most private practices do not have large social media followings, and most haven't historically gotten their core referrals from social media.

The takeaway message here is: awesome if you love doing it, go for it. But if it's not you and you don't want to develop it as a skill, there are plenty of other ways, and we'll touch on some of those. The other point I want to make is about authenticity. If you are going to give social media a go, stick with content that genuinely resonates with you. It's easier to maintain and audiences detect authenticity very quickly.

FIONA:

That's a bit of a theme: authenticity. Myth number three is that you're either a great salesperson or you're not. Whether you call it sales, marketing, promotion, or business development, there are a lot of myths and clichés surrounding the type of person or skill set you need to do it well. We all have perceptions of what sales looks like, and most of us in these industries want to stay far away from those stereotypes. But there are lots of ways to put yourself out there and get noticed, and those clichéd approaches are definitely not the only ways. It's easy to compare yourself to the most prominent promoters in your industry, the very outgoing, high-energy personalities who seem to be everywhere. But that's them doing them. What we each need to do is find our own style and authentic ways of operating. Damien, what's your take on the reality here?

DAMIEN:

The reality is that you attract aligned people. That very outgoing salesperson type will attract people that make sense for them, and comparing yourself to that isn't healthy and will cause you to undersell yourself. Anything new that you do feels a little uncomfortable, so we can't define our approach as "only things I'm already comfortable with," because we'll never grow. But just because something is uncomfortable isn't in itself a sign that it's the wrong fit.

I think the key is to focus on what's authentic to you and the way you naturally communicate. For me, I'm not naturally good at social media. It just doesn't resonate personally or professionally. But I do like talking to people, communicating, doing live presentations and talks. Even that felt uncomfortable at first, I could feel very anxious about it, but it was a skill I wanted to practice and could get better at, and it resonated with me. So it is going to feel uncomfortable at times. But don't get an idea in your mind that you need to be like a stereotypical salesperson. End of the day, we do need to be communicating. We just want to do it in the format that works best for the individual.

FIONA:

I'm similar, I lean much more introverted than extroverted. And across my career I've come to the conclusion that marketing anything comes down to having a real belief in it. I truly have to believe that what I'm promoting is genuinely beneficial to the person I'm talking to, that they'll be better off for it. It almost feels like a responsibility to share it. The way I think about it is through making people aware of something and then educating them, sharing my passion and enthusiasm. When I do it that way, it doesn't feel like selling. And I think that tracks perfectly well for practitioners too. If you almost have a responsibility to share what you're passionate about, if you just think of marketing and sales as sharing, that's all it is. And it can be really niche too. Sharing with whatever audience makes sense to you will sell what your practice does, because people will relate to it.

FIONA:

Okay, myth number four: marketing needs a lot of money, or marketing is going to eat up your budget. Who's got extra money lying around to spend on marketing? There's no doubt marketing can be expensive. Advertising can be very expensive and it's very easy to spend a lot very quickly. But it certainly doesn't have to be that way. Marketing really should be seen as part of operating costs, factored in when setting pricing and budgeting. You don't need a huge budget, but it's good to have a small budget set aside for the purpose of growing the business. Damien, what's your experience with marketing spend?

DAMIEN:

You can successfully market your business almost for free. Most of the things that are most impactful are very low cost. I do agree about having a budget, though. As our practice grew, we set aside money for marketing. I used to think of it as: if we ever got into trouble with referrals and weren't getting enough coming through, we had enough sitting there to market our way out of it. We could do some paid advertising or a targeted push if we needed to. But for most things, you really don't need much.

A couple of things to watch out for. There are a lot of people out there who will sell you marketing services, paid Google advertising, Facebook advertising, Instagram advertising, and they'll sign you up to expensive plans with minimum spend commitments. In my experience, working with those agencies both in a practice and at Zanda, they are usually a waste of money and can chew through your budget extremely quickly. Avoid those unless you personally know someone who has a strong track record. Most of the big agencies, to be quite frank about it, are a disaster.

If you're still in the early stages of building your practice, you typically have more time because your books aren't full yet. So you're often the best person for your business, not hiring an external pay-per-click expert or a marketing agency, but just being authentic and getting your message out there in whatever format works for you. Refine your message and go out and talk to people about what you care about. That's what speaks volumes. Sending out GP letters, doing talks, visiting businesses or sporting clubs, whatever makes sense for your practice, has a massive impact.

The other reality of marketing is that it takes a little time before it becomes effective. You don't get same-day results. Be patient, keep the core message authentic, and over time it will start to resonate and you'll usually get a better return as your message builds familiarity.

FIONA:

And most marketing activities work together. It's usually not one thing in isolation. Someone sees you here, then hears a mention there, then you pop up somewhere else. A multi-pronged approach, where different channels reinforce each other, is what tends to work. Repeating the same message can feel monotonous to you as the speaker, but audiences need many re-exposures before they really take something in. Think about how repetitive political messaging is, and why. They decide on a message and keep going with it.

FIONA:

Alright, let's jump into tips. The first tip is to redefine what marketing actually means to you. It's really about questioning the stories you've been telling yourself about marketing, the underlying beliefs that it's uncomfortable, inauthentic, or just not your thing. Those beliefs are probably holding you back. The best thing to do is almost write a new definition. It could be something like: "The more we communicate and share our knowledge, the more people we can help." Or: "My practice changes lives, so let's let more people know so we can have more impact." Something that makes it meaningful for you and motivating for what you're actually doing.

DAMIEN:

Tip two is about clarifying what makes you memorable. This comes back to authenticity again. It's the driving force of what makes you and your practice you. Think about what referrers or patients consistently appreciate about you or your team. Try listing three to five things that genuinely represent you and what you offer. In our practice, we were really focused on practical strategies, giving people actionable takeaways for whatever issues they were experiencing. And we were focused on demystifying psychology, making it accessible, avoiding industry-specific language. That was our core message all the way through. Finding those three to five things that make you or your practice stand out, and then using them consistently wherever you communicate, whether in your bio, your referral letters, introductory letters, talks, or brochures, means people start to remember you for the right reasons, and it's easier to maintain because it's authentic.

FIONA:

Tip three is to optimise your digital front door, your online presence, which really means your website. There are strong statistics about the percentage of patients who are influenced by what they find online, and it applies equally to referrers. Ask yourself: does your website really communicate the quality and clarity of care you offer? If you ask people outside your industry to look at it, would they quickly understand what you do, who you help, and how to book? Those things might seem obvious to you because you've been looking at your website for years, but check that others find it equally clear.

Websites don't need to be expensive. There are lots of great ways to build one without much investment. Make sure you have a solid About section, because people want to know who they're going to be working with: your background, specialties, your team. List the services you offer and the conditions or patient types you treat. Include contact details and opening hours. Add photos of your premises or clinic so prospective clients can visualise themselves having services there. A list of FAQs is also great. If people are asking you things on the phone or on their first visit, chances are they'd want to know those things when looking at your website, so keep adding to that. Share what makes you passionate about your practice and the services you provide.

And of course, empower clients by giving them the option to book online and manage their account through Zanda's client portal. We've got some new functionality and branding features coming very soon with that too. If you're going to invest in one area of marketing, put your time and sometimes a little money into building a really good website.

DAMIEN:

That was very important for our practice as well. When we started, even having a website at all was less common, and it cost more to build then than it does now. But one of the reasons the practice grew quickly and we sustained it was that we did those basics consistently. We kept the content fresh. If you've started a blog and then forgotten about it, you're better off removing those old posts, because nothing says "uncared for" like stale content. Also check your copyright date at the bottom of your website. If it still says 2015 or something similar, it sends a message. Basic front-door hygiene really makes a big difference.

FIONA:

Tip four is revisiting and nurturing your referral network. Your referral network often represents some of the most significant value in your practice. These are the people who have built trust with you and actually send you business. If your referral network dries up, you'll run into trouble fairly quickly. Think about when you last followed up with your referrers. Make sure you're consistently sending acknowledgement and thank you letters where appropriate, updating on treatment outcomes, and letting referrers know when a referred patient wasn't able to be engaged. The feedback we've gotten, both from our own private practice experience and from working with practices around the world through Zanda, is that nurturing these relationships and keeping communication going makes a huge difference in how referrers perceive the practitioners they send patients to. It shows you care. It shows professionalism. Simple things, but they really mean a lot.

DAMIEN:

And doing that even when your practice is flooded with referrals is important. There's a tendency to take referrers for granted when you're busy, but business ebbs and flows, and maintaining those relationships when you're really busy actually takes more discipline and is just as important as doing it when you're still building up. Also, re-engage past referrers. In Zanda, you can run a report to identify referrers who sent business in the past but haven't recently, and then re-engage them with a letter or update, sharing what's new at the practice, a new team member, or just a reminder of the services you offer. Zanda makes it easy to use templates to send out letters, and we'll include links to some referral letter templates in the follow-up from this webinar.

FIONA:

Tip five is to step out of your comfort zone, a little. This goes back to what we said before, so I won't reiterate too much. But stepping out of your comfort zone is good for growth. We know it's important for human progression, and I think most of us have had moments in our careers where doing something uncomfortable ended up being really meaningful. Whether it's giving a talk, hosting a webinar, writing a blog post, or doing an interview, make a plan to try one of these things. If it doesn't work or you decide it's not for you, try something else. Just get started and get comfortable with being a little bit uncomfortable.

DAMIEN:

I mentioned this kind of thing in my own journey. I ended up with a regular segment on a national radio station as part of my outreach work. I'm naturally quite anxious about things like that, especially in those days, and I would literally carry a plastic bag in my pocket in case I was sick before going on air. That level of discomfort was real, but I was so passionate about demystifying psychology and making it accessible to people that I pushed through it. I didn't feel particularly good at it, but they kept asking me back, so I did it for about eleven years. The enthusiasm and genuine interest in the topic carried it. The discomfort reduced over time, and eventually I really quite enjoyed it. Most things worth doing require pushing a little bit outside what's comfortable.

FIONA:

Hopefully this has been the prompt that gets you to try one of these things, or to block off a little bit of time to put one of these tips into practice. That brings us to the end of the tips and the myths and realities section. I hope we've shed some light on how we think about marketing for health practices.

DAMIEN:

Just a few resources and announcements to wrap up. We have an Ideas Board within Zanda. We really try to listen to customers and build Zanda's functionality based on their ideas. If you have a suggestion, go to the Help menu in the software and click Submit Idea. We review everything, and while we can't act on everything, we prioritise based on what comes through. We are always releasing improvements, and I hope you can see that.

We also have the Zanda Academy, available under the Help menu: courses on getting started, perfect for new users or new team members, as well as more advanced courses for getting more out of Zanda. And of course there's my book on the nine secrets of successful health practices. You can find it at zandahealth.com/secrets or pick up a copy on Amazon.

Finally, for contact and support: you can email us anytime, visit our website, or book a support call to speak with a real person. And look for the Practice Hive icon at the top of your account. That's where we publish all our release notes so you can stay up to date with new features and enhancements. Practice Hive is also where your internal team messaging lives, so you can message between practitioners and admin team members within Zanda. It's encrypted to the same standards as medical records, which makes it more compliant for health information than standalone tools like Slack.

Well, thank you very much for attending. We hope we've sparked some ideas for you. And thank you, Fiona, for joining today and sharing your expertise and perspective.

FIONA:

I hope it was helpful and that people feel a little bit less apprehensive about marketing!